Another one bites the dust

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Our local state university is going all-digital. With the darkrooms gone, there are a few empty rooms with plumbing and one even has a ceiling high enough for a Saltzman 8x10" enlarger. I proposed that I build a special darkroom for historical purposes, including the restored Saltzman enlarger with the best of lenses - free. The department Chair almost went ballistic - really hates photography or something. Very strange because somehow she got a PhD in photography without making pictures. Oh, wait. Of course one need not actually practice the field for a PhD. Silly me.

Regarding outcomes of higher education, one has to wait and look back after several years, and not just to immediate post-graduation employment figures. After years you find what impact was made. It is enlightening to find that liberal arts students trained in critical thinking are most flexible, generally speaking, and better at moving up and changing professions when they want to.

Your dept. head probably has a PhD in art history, and she probably wrote her dissertation on photography, which is why she never actually made photographs. I don't know of any PhD programs in making art, only in the history of art. There's nothing wrong with studying art history, but I find it strange that she hates photography if thats what she spent her PhD time studying.

 

[radiocemetery]

Maybe the Dept. head is just scared of the dark.

 

[Melvin]

How come photographers who covert to digital are so intolerant of film? Especially the old ones. When they see me with a film camera they try to start arguments with me.

As for students not learning analog photography, it's fine. But the option should be there. I'm sick of computers. Everything's on the computer. I'm on the computer right now. Blech.

 

[x-ray]

The idea that college prepares one for a job is flawed to start with. College, as far as I can tell, presents a situation in which students have an opportunity to learn to think for themselves.

If students are taught to think are they photographers if they think they are? What is tuition today to learn to think one is a photographer?

 

[sepiareverb]

Also, there is the expense for the school to maintain additional labs, chemistry, paper, film etc.

Chemistry and paper are still cheaper than ink cartridges and inkjet paper. Ever tried having a photography crit with a projected image on a screen? It sucks. A print on paper is better for all involved.

Are there any non college grads working as professors at Yale or any other university today?

Yes. Me. (not Yale)

I really do think craft is something that should be experienced. Printing from a negative allows one to show their capacity for craft in a way an inkjet print never will.

 

[Papa Smurf]

I commend you Uncle.

I commend you Uncle.

Wow. I've known several tool & Die makers, including one of my uncles, and none of then had a bachelors degree. I can't imagine what a college degree would bring to a job like that which is usually learned through apprenticeship. My uncle just got a job because the hiring manager was a machinist who had been one of my uncle's apprentices 20 years ago!

My point exactly, what can I say but that I thirst for knowledge yet because I did not have certificates in a one or more specific programing languages, I was deemed unemployable by the decision makers. What chance does someone that has no experience and only limited training? Today's college graduates are being asked to be highly skilled in only one or two areas of their chosen field. I am told that today's press photography is about digital images that can be uploaded via WiFi without ever leaving the scene.